Sunna Gunnlaugs : Icelandic Jazz Pianist
I'm back in Iceland now and feeling inspired after playing duo with the brilliant German pianist Julia Hülsmann at the Gaume Jazz Festival in Rossignol, Belgium. The concert was outdoors under a giant tent and the weather didn't cooperate. You might even say...
I was so excited to revisit one of my favorite venues in the States, Blues Alley. They are a partner in the 2021 Nordic Jazz Festival. Alas, they will be presenting a re-stream of a concert with my trio......
These days performing with anyone is a rarity, but it is indeed a special treat to get two grand pianos on stage and have Julia Hülsmann sitting at one of them. We have performed together several times and it's always fresh. Exploring each other's compositions and just reacting in real time is so much fun....
What an honor. I was overwhelmed to hear that I had been selected by Kópavogur to be the Town Artist or Bæjarlistamaður....
Like all performers, I've been affected by the pandemic with cancelled tours and closing venues. We try to stay positive even when the future looks bleak. We find new ways to connect with the world....
The trio flew to Finland last month for a brief tour with Verneri. I meant to write something about it before we went, but I've been so busy composing for an Icelandic TV show that I didn't get around to it. So here's a recap instead. First of all, I love Finland. The people are so nice and everything just seems to work there. All the venues we played at were outstanding. The first two (in Tampere and Helsinki) were called G Livelab and are run in partnership with the Finnish musicians union. The design and acoustics of the spaces......
There are no words for how relieved I am to finally have my first vinyl pressing ever. After delays and flaws and "technical issues" Ancestry is now available as a 12" 180g LP. We couldn't fit all the tracks from the CD version, but when you order from Bandcamp you also get a digital download of the whole thing. The process of trying to structure the LP to make musical sense and yet fit on 2 sides is another store entirely. Talk about hard decisions. Otherwise, Freyjujazz is starting up again and we have 4 women from Germany visiting in......
I'm excited to announce that I'll be participating in Medimex this year which takes place in Taranto, Italy. On June 8th I'll be doing "speed meetings" (do I need good shoes for that?) from 10:30 – 12:00. I'm also looking forward to hearing a bunch of great music. It looks like quite a line-up. For...
I'm so looking forward to heading to Rotterdam for InJazz where I'll be on a panel discussion about being a part of the international jazz scene from an island....
Yes, an update is in order. My new album "Ancestry" was released in September, and I've been a bit busy with other things since then, but now I'm refocusing and gearing up to perform the music from "Ancestry" here in Iceland and in Germany at JazzAhead in Bremen. We're all really excited to get a...
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